Examples of simple mnemonics

One common mnemonic device for remembering lists consists of an easily remembered word, phrase, or rhyme whose initials or other characteristics are associated with the list items.

The personal name Roy G. Biv helps us to remember the order of the colors in the spectrum. In England "Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain" is popular (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet).

Beginning music students trying to memorize the notes of the staff use the mnemonics "Every Good Boy Does Fine" and "FACE" for the lines and spaces of the Treble Clef respectively. The Bass Clef equivalents are "Good Boys Do Fine Always" and "All Cows Eat Grass".

The acronym HOMES is also a mnemonic aid that can be used to remember the names of the Great Lakes (Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior).

The famous mnemonic for approximating the digits of pi: "May I have a large container of coffee?" Counting the letters in each word yields the sequence 3,1,4,1,5,9,2,6. A longer version is: "How I want a drink, alcoholic of course, after the heavy lectures involving quantum mechanics!" Another notable (but shorter) version is "How I wish I could recollect pi".

A famous mnemonic used by medical students to remember the cranial nerves is "On Old Olympus` Tiny Top A Finn And German Viewed Some Hops" (with variations; some say "terraced tops," some say "towering top," and "view some hops" is sometimes rendered as "vaulted a hedge").

A mnemonic used by physics students to remember the Maxwell relations in thermodynamics is "Good Physicists Have Studied Under Very Fine Teachers", which helps them remember the order of the variables in the square, in clockwise direction. Another mnemonic used here is "Valid Facts and Theoretical Understanding Generate Solutions to Hard Problems", which gives the letter in the normal left to right writing direction.

A mnemonic for remembering the number of days in the months of the year, practically a cultural universal in the United States, is "Thirty days hath September/April, June and November." (Although this is only part of a longer rhyme, this is the only part that most people remember, so they commonly complete it with words similar to "... except February, which has twenty-eight, or twenty-nine in a leap year." The full mnemonic is "Thirty days hath September/April, June and November/All the rest have thirty-one/except February alone/which has eight and a score/until leap year gives it one day more.")

Another mnemonic for the days of the months is not a rhyme or a jingle, but a gestalt. Whereas the traditional mnemonic simply associates the name of the month with the number of days, this one emphasizes the sequence. The 31 and less-than-31-day months would be easy to remember if they simply alternated, but this pattern was broken in 27 B.C. by the decision to rename the month of Sextilis to Augustus and to increase its length from 30 to 31 days. Thus the fourth 31-day month, July, is immediately followed by another 31-day month. Since the human hand has four fingers, one can, given an appropriate mind-set, perceive this pattern in a view of the knuckles of two fists, held together. The raised knuckles can be seen as the 31-day months, the dips between them as the 30-day-months-and-February, and the gap between the hands ignored. (Thus: left-hand-pinky-knuckle = January, dip = February, left-hand-ring-knuckle = March, dip = April, and so on to left-hand-index-knuckle = July; then continue with right-hand-index-knuckle = August, dip = September, etc).

A curious characteristic of many memory systems is that mnemonic devices work despite being (or possibly because of being) illogical, arbitrary, and artistically flawed. "Roy" is a legitimate first name, but there is no actual surname "Biv" and of course the middle initial "G" is arbitrary. Why is "Roy G. Biv" easy to remember? Medical students never forget the arbitrary nationalities of the Finn and German. Any two of the three months ending in -ember would fit just as euphoniously as September and November in "Thirty days hath...", yet most people can remember the rhyme correctly for a lifetime after having heard it once, and are never troubled by doubts as to which two of the -ember months have thirty days. A bizarre arbitrary association may stick in the mind better than a logical one.

Mastering Memory

"Mastering Memory" includes a series of exercises that can help you understand, and yes, remember, the techniques outlined. Any notes you make during these exercises will be for your use only. You may wish to print them because exercises will not be saved once you finish.

There are two kinds of memory:

1. Short-term - this is not permanent; it`s what happens when you get up and go into the other room to get (umm) what was it again?
2. Long-term - this holds the information that is well-learned and quite possibly keeps it there indefinitely.

• To move something from short-term into long-term memory, your brain uses a coding method to help retrieve the information. (*The key is to develop techniques to effectively make this move.)
• Since your brain is coding the information, it is easier for you to remember additional information on topics you already know something about, which is why learning something new may take twice as long to remember.

Example: your friend Joe teaches you how to log on to the Internet on Monday. By Tuesday you may have forgotten how to log on and Joe will have to show you again. However, if you`ve been surfing the Net for years and your best friend Susie shows you how to access her new Web page, you are much more likely to remember it the next day - you already have a framework for learning the material in your mind.

Memory Records

Some autistics display extraordinary memory, as well as those with similar conditions like Asperger`s syndrome. Autistic savants are a rarity but they, in particular, show signs of spectacular memory.

Synesthesia has also been credited as an enhancement of auditory memory, but only for information that triggers a synesthetic reaction. However, some synesthetics have been found to have a more acute than normal "perfect color" sense with which they are able to match color shades nearly perfectly after extended periods of time, without the accompanying synesthetic reaction.

Project index

• Memorize tracery online free game
• what change in picture. Picture memory game
• Controversy
• Development of brain function in humans
• Dreaming and dreams
• Examples of simple mnemonics
• External mnemonic links
• Eidetic memory in fiction
• Herbal
• History of mnemonic
• Johnny Mnemonic